Design, Analysis, and Verification of Ka-Band Pattern Reconfigurable Patch Antenna Using RF MEMS Switches

Abstract: This paper proposes a radiating pattern reconfigurable antenna by employing RF Micro-electromechanical Systems (RF MEMS) switches. The antenna has a low profile and small size of 4 mm× 5 mm× 0.4 mm, and mainly consists of one main patch, two assistant patches, and two RF MEMS switches. By changing the RF MEMS switches operating modes, the proposed antenna can switch among three radiating patterns (with main lobe directions of approximately −17.0◦, 0◦ and +17.0◦) at 35 GHz. The far-field vector addition model is applied to analyse the pattern. Comparing the measured results with analytical and simulated results, good agreements are obtained.